FAST-BUCK ARTISTS POISON TO SNAKEROOT VETERANS

Snakeroot means quick and easy money to some people, but to Ivan Thrasher and his son, Pat, it's a livelihood.

The Thrashers have been in the snakeroot business for nearly 50 years. They buy the native plant and ship it across the nation.

American Indians used the plant--the scientific name of which is Echinacea angustifolia--for medicinal purposes. People have been digging the wild medicinal herb for money in the Stockton area since 1885.

Known variously as Kansas snakeroot, purple coneflower or prairie doctor, the plant is a perennial with thick, woody black roots and a flower that looks like a purplish, drooping daisy. It grows wild throughout the Plains and the South, favoring hilly terrain where underlying limestone is peeking through.

Pat Thrasher, 46, said the plant is reputedly used as a numbing substance in pharmaceutical products, but that's incorrect. Although when chewed the plant can numb your mouth, it works as an immune system stimulator by encouraging the body to produce white blood cells. It's been sold for that purpose in Europe for decades, he said.

Pat started learning the snakeroot business from his father when he was 6.

"There's been developments since then in the root business," Pat said, "but as far as how to do it and do it right, the importance of the land, I learned from him."

Ivan Thrasher, 73, dug snakeroot somewhat as a young man, but not seriously until he returned from World War II. "Been digging it ever since," he said.

Ivan knew a Stockton buyer who would pay 14 cents a pound for green root. The buyer would dry it and then ship it to bigger buyers.

Ivan, who retired from Phillips Petroleum in Plainville, decided years ago that the way to earn money was to ship the root himself. He began buying root from other diggers and shipping it.

One of the Thrashers' customers, a Massachusetts company, turns snakeroot into a powder for capsules, or an extract, for colds and flu. The company makes more than 200 herbal products for health professionals, herbal manufacturers, health food stores and individuals.

Among them are antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal formulas; a mixture for prostate problems; and a mixture for chronic fatigue syndrome. There's even a salve for cuts and sores.

Pat said the snakeroot market is as volatile as the stock market. Last year, diggers sold their root to Thrasher for $14 a pound dry, $5 wet. This year, it's $22 a pound dry.

When sellers visit Thrasher, the root is weighed on an electronic scale. Dirt, stems and rocks are carefully removed from the root, which is then either dried, or if already dry, packaged and shipped to buyers.

The drying process is delicate. Root buyers have to watch for diggers who want the dry price for their contents without taking the time to properly shade-dry the root for a week.

Sometimes roots have even been baked or microwaved in an attempt to hurry the drying process. Pat said snakeroot treated in this way is no good because it cooks the medicine out.

And Pat said it's rooters like these, looking for the easy dollar, that cause problems by trespassing and tearing up land.

Rooting can either be a benefit or a detriment to the land, depending on how it's done, said Pat. He has known farmers who like to see diggers on their property because they loosen dirt, which enables water to penetrate the ground.

Steve Brown of Stockton has been digging snakeroot steadily for about three years to supplement his income as an appliance repairman.

Brown, who digs 10 to 15 hours a week, said doing things by the book prevents most problems.

For one thing, a person should have permission to dig on someone's land, said Brown, 30.

"You don't need anybody mad at you," he observed.

Other suggestions: Don't enter locked areas, and use a pick--it leaves the ground better off than prybars or shovels.

Try to leave the ground undisturbed, Brown advised. If you pull out a chunk of ground, kick the dirt back in the hole.

But Pat Thrasher said some rooters have been known to trespass, dig holes and leave them uncovered, cause grass fires by dropped cigarettes or hot vehicles, leave gates open and litter.

"They're ruining it," he says, "for the people who have been doing it for years and years."